Annex plan draws criticism

Rural residents see threat as city wants 30 acres near new hospital to finish Citracado, build business park

A truck turns east from Citracado Parkway on to Andreasen Drive where Citracado dead ends at the intersection. The city of Escondido is planning to extend Citracado Parkway through to Avenida del Diablo.

A truck turns east from Citracado Parkway on to Andreasen Drive where Citracado dead ends at the intersection. The city of Escondido is planning to extend Citracado Parkway through to Avenida del Diablo.

ESCONDIDO  Escondido officials want to annex 30 acres of county land to build a business park near the new Palomar Medical Center, but residents in rural neighborhoods nearby have raised objections.

City Council members voted Wednesday to ask a county agency to approve the annexation.

They said placing the land within city boundaries would ease construction and maintenance of a half-mile Citracado Parkway connector road, which is expected to improve access to the hospital and ease traffic congestion in western Escondido when it opens in 2015.

Council members also said a business park made sense in the area. It’s bordered by the Escondido Research and Technology Center to the north and the Pacific Oaks Place business park to the east.

Escondido officials have been trying to add higher-paying jobs in recent years to increase the city’s median income, the lowest among North County’s nine cities.

Nearby residents in Harmony Grove, Eden Valley and Elfin Forest said the proposed business park could threaten their rural way of life. Those neighborhoods feature large lots, and many residents keep horses on their property.

In 2003, residents in those areas persuaded the county to remove the 30 acres from Escondido’s sphere of influence to prevent industrial development.

On Wednesday, those residents submitted letters to the city asking for a landscaped “buffer” between them and the proposed business park.

They also asked that the city prohibit outdoor signs, limit development to four stories, require buildings to be painted with earth tones and mandate that lights be shielded.

In addition, the residents want hiking trails in the area connected.

Mid Hoppenrath, a member of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council, said the residents want assurances from the council now, because they won’t have any leverage after the annexation.

“Our dilemma as a community is, we’d like to have assurance the city will continue to work with us in good faith,” she said.

Council members said they would honor the request for the buffer and other restrictions when the business park proposal comes forward.

The county’s general plan designates the 30 acres as sensitive habitat. But Escondido’s general plan, which city voters updated on Nov. 6, calls for a business park focused on clean research or medical uses.

The county’s zoning trumps the city’s unless the land is annexed.

Councilwoman Olga Diaz, the only council member to vote against the annexation Wednesday, said she would prefer to leave the county’s zoning alone. She said the business park could threaten habitat along the Escondido Creek in the area.

Mayor Sam Abed said another benefit of the proposed annexation would be easing construction of the $25 million connector road.

He said the $1 billion hospital, which opened in August, was suffering with only one access route off Nordahl Road and state Route 78. He also said the new road would ease congestion on Route 78 and Interstate 15 by allowing people to travel north and south more easily in western Escondido.